Bathroom Habit
Keep reading, folks. This isn't one of those posts that comes with a disclaimer. I promise, it's not too revealing, embarrassing, or disgusting.
I have a perfectly normal habit that involves using the toilet, bathroom, water closet, loo, or John. I read while I'm doing my business. Yup. Books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets. I'm not picky.
I know that almost every literate person in the western world does this exact thing in the privacy of their personal bathroom. After all, the task itself doesn't require much attention.
Where I differ from your average reader (at least I assume so) is that I frequently do this exact same thing while in public restrooms.
Reading is my therapy, my relaxation, and my escape.
I have read books while in random restrooms. I usually have one in my purse at all times anyway. Reading is my number one anxiety relief technique, plus I have so little time left after work, married life, blogging, ect. to read that I try hard to take advantage of every spare moment.
More often, in fact four or five days a week, I read in the bathroom at work. At first, I would grab a book just once and a while. Lately, I have made a point to do so. There is a quirk of call center work that makes my little distraction vital.
The very nature of what we do makes a total ban on cell phone use everywhere in the building except the break room and bathrooms a reasonable request. The most annoying thing when you're on a call is noise of any kind. It makes it hard to hear and distracts the caller.
As one of the two dozen Americans that does not have a cell phone, I do not understand my co-workers need to use their phones. Every break and lunch in many cases. My poor ears want a break from sensory input for those few minutes, if nothing else.
Cell-phone-talking-in-public-restrooms is becoming more common as those digital wonders become more ubiquitous, I still find it both rude and disturbing. I don't want to hear your conversions ever. I especially don't want to hear them when I have my pants down around my ankles.
Bathrooms have fabulous acoustics. Did you know Weird Al Yankovic recorded his first few hits in a dorm bathroom? (I know it's true, because it's on his VH1 Behind the Music.) Think about that the next time you are tempted to 'hide' in a bathroom stall to have a whispered conversation.
I accept that I'll never get any peace and quite in a bathroom at work. So rather than expend effort to not listen to my colleagues yelling at naughty kids, or arguing with husbands and boyfriends (I don't visit the men's room, ya know), I just bring something to distract me.
If anyone notices and thinks it's weird to drag a hefty novel into the ladies' room with me, you know what, they can just hold their tongue. I know it's not something you see every day. I'm a weird little bookworm - I accepted that about myself years ago. Hardcovers and your long winded writer like Stephen King aren't pocket sized. And I am not ashamed.
At least I'm not the one inflicting my conversations on every soul that has to tinkle.
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6/26/2008 8:44 PM
The Creative Nerd wrote:
Booking Through Thursday provides weekly prompts on book related topics. This week's topic is "Definition." Check out the details: What, in your opinion, is the definition of a “reader.” A person who indiscriminately reads everything in sight? A person who reads BOOKS? A person who reads, period, no matter what it is? … Or, more specific? Like the specific person who’s reading something you wrote?A reader is any person who always has an answer to the question "What are you reading now?"More often then not, a reader will tell you what book they just finished, what they are in ...
At work an old coworker used to say he was 'going to the library' and he'd take a book with him into the bathroom.
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It sure makes me feel better to hear that. I'm sure I'll be temped when I get a laptop to do the same thing, but I'll have to keep it a 'book only zone' to keep up with my reading. See, hell or high water, 2008 is the year of Tina Gets a Laptop.
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See, this is where I'm far distanced from the average person, because I'm sort of an Andrian Monk meaning I can't even stand shaking someone's hand or touching a door knob that someone else just touched, if anyone - even me - read a book or laptop on the john I can tell you 100% for sure I'd never touch the article again, in fact my household pretty much runs on bleach and sanitizer. I'll pretend that it's just that I'm silly, not that I've got some kind of severe OCD lol.
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I blame the companies that make that stuff for making us all paranoid about "germs" - I figure that billions before me have lived fine healthy lives without killing every germ in their world, so I'll survive. On the other hand, I'm a big believer in boosting one's immune system from the inside out. Zinc and Airborne this time of year are my friends, please a good daily multi.
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Uhm...am I the weird one out then? I cannot take anything to the loo when I'm doing loo business. I need to concentrate. I'm a focus-on-one-thing kind of person. If I bring a reading material to the loo, two things might happen:
1. I will never "do the job" because I'd be concentrating on my reading.
2. I'd do the job and still sit there for 2 hours, or until the novel is finished. No flushing, no wiping. And God help you if you get to the john next to mine.
Haha!
Oh Tina...when you do get a laptop next year, liveblog from the loo, will you? LOL!
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I'll have to liveblog from the loo at least once. If my readers want it, they'll get it.
I have problem number 2 (no pun intended) when I get up in the middle of the night. I need a clock in there, cause I don't know the time has passed.
As for needing to concentrate, I'd see a doctor.
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A few weeks ago, my boss was on a long commute home with a fellow passenger who used the train ride to call her patients on her cell and tell them the results of their ultrasounds. As in, "Hello, Jane Smith? Just wanted to tell you everything is fine. Do you want to know your baby's gender?" That is so jaw droppingly rude and creepy I can add no other comment.
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That's totally against privacy laws. That doctor'll be in deep when he gets caught.
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One of the women where I work is always on her cell phone in the bathroom. We actually call it the phone booth for that reason.
I would not be able to read in there. I must be comfy to read, and I'm not comfy in there.
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I don't think it would be as bad in a workplace with single room bathrooms. We have a set of restrooms on either side of the building. With around 600 people in and out of them all day, that's too many people to think you can have a 'personal' conversation.
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so, i have to ask. is it all bathroom breaks, or just number two?
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Wow. Pretty much grab a book on all of them, but obviosuly only read a little when I just got to pee. Some days it's a nice place to hide out on my break when I want to be left alone.
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Hee! I'm always in a hurry to get out of public restrooms. I almost always have a book with me. Maybe I should start spening my "beak time" reading time, too!
Visiting for the Postie Carnival!
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Every minute counts since there are so many books to read, plus all those pesky other things that get in the way.
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